


Think Of It As A Mind Hug

by kiwisandwich (panconkiwi)



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 08:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11309988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panconkiwi/pseuds/kiwisandwich
Summary: When the world (one block in a relatively quiet neighbourhood) is in danger, can the power of friendship save the day?No? Oh. Well, what about the power of fusion? Yeah, that sounds better. But it's still a matter of whether Strongarm and Grimlock can keep it together.(Pretend Combiner Force hasn't happenedyet.)





	Think Of It As A Mind Hug

**Author's Note:**

> I actually came up with this before Combiner Force (you know, when fusion AU's were everywhere), then they announced it, I decided I should give up on the idea, and then... turns out Combiners don't develop a new personality like in the comics and webseries so what!! the heck!!! estupida mis headcanons idiota!!!
> 
>  **THE IMPORTANT BIT** : This is set around the beggining of Season 2, fusions and combiners are different bussiness (I get into that briefly in the fic) and friendship is magic.
> 
> There's a bit shipping in this, but I don't want to tag it just to dissapoint shippers when they see it's no the focus, as this is mostly about Strongarm and Grimlock being friends and learning about eachother (and I plan on keeping it platonic). But if you should know, there's gonna be a lot of gay subtext.
> 
> Also, this isn' beta'd, and I'm not native, so yeah, sorry in advance!

Not a soul walked on the streets, understandably so as it was 1am on a tuesday, but it didn’t make it less of a blessing. If they were going to chase a bunch of rogue Vehicons around the city, at least they wouldn’t have to deal with nosey humans getting in their way.

Anyway, what was those guys’ deal anyway?

“Attention, Decepticons, if you pull over now we will take you in _peacefully_.”

The Vehicons accelerated, leaving Strongarm a good 50 meters behind. Why didn’t these people _ever_ cooperate?

Bumblebee sped up too, catching up to her briefly. “Nice try.”

Strongarm ex-vented. “Thanks, lieutenant.” She let him go ahead of their formation and followed after. Tonight it was just the two of them, since stealth and speed wasn’t a good combination for Grimlock. In times like these Strongarm missed the company of Drift, Windblade, or, Primus forgave her, Sideswipe. Turns out Vehicons were a bigger pain in the aft than him.

“Strongarm, the sewer system!”

The Vehicons were taking a turn towards a dead end, and while Bumblebee secured their escape from above, she could take them on in the tunnel under the street. <<Good thinking, sir!,>> she comm’d before following his orders.

On the surface, Bumblebee was amused to see the three Vehicons transform before reaching the dead end. He did too, grabbing his laser gun and shooting at them until one noticed the opening on the ground. The Vehicons vanished through the hole down where Strongarm waited for them.

<<Strongarm, they are on your way. I’ll be there in a minute too, do _not_ engage before I arrive, they still outnumber us to one. >>

A set of lights approached from the far end of the tunnel. Oh, Strongarm was really missing the rest of the team now. Vehicons weren’t that big of a threat, especially once you removed their advantage of speed; she and any of the guys could take care of the three of them easily. Well, orders were orders. With a swift movement, Strongarm transformed to root-mode and landed right before the Vehicons reached her position. Decepticon Hunter in hand, she spoke up again. “Alright, ‘cons, I’m giving you one last chance: surrender now and we will spare you from a beating on the way to the base.”

“Surrender?”

“She said surrender.”

“Lord Megatron will kill us if we do that.”

Oh, for the Allspark’s sake. “Megatron left the Earth years ago, you buffoons! You don’t follow his orders now!”

The three Vehicons stared at each other.

“Oh.”

“This changes everything.”

“Well, then!”

And they danced.

<<I’m about to reach your position, hold them just a bit longer-!>>

Strongarm lowered her weapon, dumbfounded. “Uh, sir? The Vehicons are not engaging.”

<<Good. Wait, what? The good cop gig actually worked?>>

“No, I mean, yes? I just told them about Megatron and they became so happy the started dancing.”

<<Well, that sure is…>> Bumblebee finally became visible through the tunnel, as Strongarm and the Vehicons became visible to him too. But instead of approaching them further, he froze in place, then screamed. “They are not dancing, they are _fusing_!”

“What?”

A light engulfed the Vehicons, blinding Strongarm. Three silhouettes merged into one bigger, taller figure…

The light dimmed. A Vehicon three times the size a regular model stared down at her. It was so big it could barely stand straight inside the tunnel.

“Step Back!”

Strongarm snapped out of the shock and barely missed the claw that swiped at her. “What is that thing?!”

“It’s a fusion!,” Bumblebee yelled, still on the other side of the tunnel as the giant Vehicon blocked the way. “It has the strength of three Vehicons!” He kept trying to pass through the fused mechs, until it finally got tired of his constant pestering and sent him flying ten meters away with one flick of his hand.

“Lieutenant!”

Strongarm made a run towards the fusion, but it took notice of her right away and swung its hand against her. Strongarm took it with both hands, three Vehicons were still no match for her in regards of strength. But this, it felt like a dozen Vehicons were piling up on her. She finally shifted the trajectory of the arm and barely managed to avoid it crashing against the floor near her, and then again against the wall, and again, and again, and again. If she didn’t give in first then the wall...

Rubble was starting to fall. Strongarm transformed into vehicle mode and speed away from the big Vehicon, which was now back to fighting Bumblebee on his back, punching and slapping just anywhere in his general direction until the ceiling on that side began to crumble down too.

“Lieutenant, watch out!”

A big roar and then the structure collapsed in front of Strongarm until a barrier was formed in front of her.

<<Bumblebee, come in! This is Strongarm, can you hear me?!>>

<<Loud and clear, cadet, no need to yell on my receptor.>>

<<Oh. Sorry. Are you alright in there, sir? What is your situation? Can you feel your legs?>>

<<I’m fine! You don’t need to worry about me, it’s you the one who’s trapped!>>

<<Sir, while I appreciate your concern, I was not trapped by the cave —tunnel?—, in.>>

<<But if you weren’t trapped, and I wasn’t, then who...?>>

“Um,” came an awkward hum from inside the wall of rubble, ”so, about that peace offer…”

<<I guess that answers my question.>>

 

* * *

 

So, it had come to this: Strongarm’s side of the tunnel was sealed tight; Bumblebe’s side of the tunnel was sealed tight; the Vehicons were back to their separate selves again, if the voices inside their accidental room were any indication, and not even their fused form could break them out of it.

“Coming through!” Oh, and Grimlock was there now. “Operation Wall Demolition: Attempt Number Seven goes live in three, two, one, _RAAAAARGH-_ ow!” He wasn’t of much help either.

“So, that was a type of combiner?”

<<Strictly leaking- squeaking- speaking!, while both techniques involve turning two or more beings into one, the processes behind fusion and combination are vastly different! Both date from over five million cycles->>

“Fixit,” scolded Bumblebee, “abridged version, please.”

<<Right, sorry,>> Fixit cleared his vocalizer and resumed his explanation. <<Combining requires an external stimulus, usually in the form of energy, to kickstart the process of unification, while the power source of fusing is internal.>>

“Internal, as in combustion?” asked Strongarm.

<<Not… exactly. I'd say that counts as external too. Fusing is more like a mental state, two mechs must be in complete synch to achieve it.>>

Strongarm whispered, “The dancing…,” but Fixit didn’t get to hear her.

<<Which is also where another crucial difference lies: combiners ensemble into each other to build a shared body while keeping each mind intact, whereas fusions, well, _fuse_ both their bodies and their minds. In fact, they develop their own, new personality _based on_ the mechs who compose it, which some have described as a rather, erm, _invasive_ process. >>

Next to Strongarm was Bumblebee, who was listening in to Fixit explanation intently, and although he didn’t seem surprised by anything, something about that last part had seemed to bother him.

<<Most mechs prefer combining over fusion because the former is both easier to achieve and sustain once engaged, as it only needs of a source of energy>>

“Then how and _why_ did the Vehicons fuse?”

“I can answer that,” said Bumblebee. “Fusion is easier for like-minded beings, and Vehicons are, well, you know.”

“Simple.”

“That’s a way to put it, but yes. I-I mean, not that only simple-minded mechs can fuse, smart mechs can do it too!”

<<But it is more occult-result-difficult! Since strong minds tend to fight over dominance, which is actually good in a combiner’s case, where a _head_ —both literally and figuratively— is necessary. >>

“Yeah, which is actually why Megatron used to rely on them so much back in the day. Fusions are easier to command.”

“But wouldn’t that present a risk?” said Strongarm. “If your powerful fusion were to turn against yourself…”

Bumblebee shifted his position slightly, covering the speaker from where he and Strongarm were talking to Fixit. “Look, I don’t want to scare Fixit, but… Megatron was strong enough to take down a fusion by himself.”

A pulse ran down Strongarm’s back cabling.

“Anyway,” Bumblebee talked to Fixit again, ”Megatron only allowed Vehicons to fuse under his command, so I guess that explains why our guys resorted to it only after Strongarm told them he was gone.”

<<Speaking of that, how is it going, Grimlock?!>>

A couple meters behind, and lying useless on the floor, Grimlock answered, “Operation Wall Demolition: Attempt Number Thirteen… was a failure.”

Bumblebee ex-vented “Good job, Grim. You can rest now.”

I was a small praise, but it did wonders to Grimlock’s self-esteem. He was back up, cheerful as ever and even waving his tail. “I loosened it! Just give me a couple minutes to recover and I estimate Operation Wall Demolition: Attempt Number Fourteen should do the trick.”

“Erm, I’d give it a bigger margin of error to that calculation…”

“It’s okay, Strongarm. You and I can help Grimlock tackle this down,” he patted both bots’ shoulder pads in what was the least effective reassuring gesture ever. “This is not a street, so we have a lot of time to clean this mess.”

<<Actually…>>

The three mechs stared at Fixit’s image on the pad, which then turned into a screencap of some government’s site. It read:

_Notice to all citizens of the AAA area: a water shortage is to be expected between the XXth and YYth of ZZZ due to a scheduled maintenance on the sewage system._

Fixit’s voice came from the pad’s speaker, <<That’s your area, and that’s tomorrow.>>

Bumblebee patted Strongarm and Grimlock’s shoulders _really hard_. “WELL THEN TEAM, LET’S GET TO WORK!”

“Ouch! Lieutenant- Bumblebee, we can’t tackle the wall down in five hours!”

<<Four hours.>>

Strongarm glared at the datapad. “ _Not helping_ , Fixit.”

“No, he’s right!,” Bumblebee was pacing around the tunnel, trying to keep calm but failing so hard it was painful to watch. “Four hours until the inspector comes, sees this cave in, calls in the authorities responsible of handling this, which gives us another hour if they leave the tunnel to wait, and then they are back and dig this rubble only to find… Aha!” He ran towards the rubble. “Vehicons! Can you transform into vehicle mode?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Too tight.”

“This is actually kinda awkward for us.”

“Nevermind then!,” Bumblebee said, and went back to pacing around while mumbling to himself.

Oh, this wasn’t good, and the panic was getting to Strongarm too. “What if… we… blow it up! Fixit, can you make an explosive? Or just anything that does anything, and knowing you it will explode anyway!”

<<Um, rude, and you are standing right under a resentful-essential- _residential area_. If the ceiling —the ground— goes down, you could endanger the locals. >>

Strongarm ex-vented, Bumblebee paced Fixit stressed, and Grimlock…

“Why don’t we fuse, then?”

Everyone stopped on their tracks. Like a good leader, it was Bumblebee who spoke first: “You want to what now?”

“Fuse! Been ages since my last time but I figured, if those guys got in this mess because of fusing, we could get them out by doing the same!”

It was Strongarm’s turn to be incredulous. “Wait, you’ve _fused_ before?”

“Yeah! We Dinobots used to do it all the time! Well, not _all_ the time because it can get creepy, but for fights and stuff!”

Bumblebee and Strongarm exchanged looks. _Like-minded creatures_.

<<That’s… not a bad idea, actually,>> Fixit ran some calculations and projected them onto the screen. <<While it hasn’t been scientifically tested, it is said that combiners and fusions _multiply_ the strength and abilities of their parts. Tackling the wall between the three of you could take hours, more than the ones we have; but combining- _fusing_ , it could make a big difference.>>

Strongarm looked at the two mechs in front of her. Grimlock seemed fine, even eager to try, but the lieutenant… He was clenching his fists.

“No,” said Bumblebee, “combining is one thing, but fusing is… is not something I’m going to make my team go through.”

Had Grimlock noticed, too? He seemed worried now, even for suggesting it.

It might have been a risky idea, but it was the only one they had.

“I’ll do it,” said Strongarm, and turned to Grimlock. “We’ll do it, Grimlock and I.”

The Dinobot looked back and smiled, full of teeth and happiness.

<<Well, while it’s not a triple fusion, since you and Grimlock are the strongest members of the team, it should give a significant advantage were the two of you fuse successfully.>>

Bumblebee stared at her, incredulous. “Guys, there _has_ to be another way.”

“With all due respect, this is all we-” but she was cut by Grimlock picking her up and hugging her.

“Oh! Oh! This is gonna be so fun! What’s our fusion gonna be called? Stronglock? Grimarm? Armlock?"

Oh boy, what had she gotten into?

“Dude, stop touching my aft,” said one of the Vehicons.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to post the next part this week. If you like what you see, [check my comission info!](http://panconkiwi.tumblr.com/post/154558359169/you-can-see-examples-of-my-english-work-here)


End file.
